Alabama

Remember Hurricane Opal? They can't forget

Some folks across southwest Alabama are still battling over insurance claims from Hurricanes Ivan and Katrina. But it could be worse.

It could be Hurricane Opal.

Such is the plight of Coffee County farmers Harold and Pam Jones, who on Friday will take their fight against Alfa Mutual Insurance Co. to the Alabama Supreme Court.

The Joneses have been tangling with Alfa in the courts for nearly a decade over money the couple claim the firm owes them for damage that the storm -- as well as a subsequent fire -- did to their home.

On Friday, the Supreme Court will hear from lawyers on both sides over whether a Coffee County Circuit Court judge was correct when he ruled that the Joneses did not present sufficient evidence that Alfa acted in bad faith in denying the claim.

"It's one of those cases where the insurance company hired an expert to avoid paying a claim," said attorney David Cowan, who represents the Joneses. "They're not hiring him for no reason."

Alfa contends that the damage to the Joneses' Enterprise home

resulted not from hurricane winds but from shifting soil that caused cracks in the structure.

"Someone with specialized training and competence in identifying structural problems made that determination," Alfa lawyer Merrill Shirley said. "It wasn't lay people of Alfa who made that decision."

Virtually everything about the case, from the length of time it has hung around the courts to the venue for Friday's Supreme Court hearing, make it unusual.

The justices will conduct the proceedings at Alabama Southern Community College in Monroeville as part of the court's effort to take its work to different parts of the state.

This is the second time the case has made it to the state's high court, and it has not yet been considered by a jury.

"Anytime you have a case that's got two appeals on it, that's very unusual in and of itself," Cowan said.

When Opal landed near Pensacola in October 1995 and cut a swath through the Florida Panhandle and Alabama's Wiregrass region, O.J. Simpson had just been found not guilty of murdering his ex-wife, Bill Clinton was president, and the Oklahoma City bombing was still a fresh memory.

Cowan said his clients have lived ever since in an agonizing state of limbo.

"It's been difficult," he said. "Their most valuable asset is sitting there in a burned-out shell, and they're living in the basement."

Cowan described his clients as "lifelong Alfa folks, the kind they would put on their brochures." He said the payments Alfa made -- $3,280 for roof damage and $300 for damage to a barn -- do not come close to covering the loss.

Shirley said Alfa is eager to get a resolution, also. Ten years is a long time, even by the standards of a civil justice system that moves slower than litigants want, he said.

The case first reached the state Supreme Court after the Joneses appealed Coffee County Circuit Judge Robert Barr's decision to dismiss the bad faith claim on procedural grounds and rule in favor of the company and several individual defendants on other allegations.

In 2003, the justices affirmed the ruling regarding the other defendants but sent back claims of bad faith and breach of contract against the company.

Both sides presented evidence on the bad faith claim, and Barr again sided with Alfa, ruling that the plaintiffs had not offered sufficient evidence. That prompted a second appeal.

Regardless of how it rules, the Supreme Court's decision will not be the last word. Even if the justices uphold Barr's decision on the bad faith claim, both sides agree there will be a trial on a breach of contract allegation.

That would not allow the plaintiffs to seek punitive damages as a bad faith claim would, however.

The Joneses' house caught fire Nov. 12, 1997 -- more than two years after Opal. It was the first time they had used their fireplace since the hurricane, according to court records, and the plaintiffs blame the house fire on damage from the storm.

Unable to pay to rebuild what is left of the structure and unable to find an insurance company to write a policy on it, the Joneses have been living in the basement, Cowan said.

Shirley argues that the fire had nothing to do with hurricane damage.

He said that during his 32-year career, he has had two or three cases reach the state Supreme Court twice -- but never a third time.

Since this lawsuit has yet to go in front of a jury, he conceded, that is a distinct possibility.

"Wouldn't that be terrible?" he said.

Friday's Alabama Supreme Court hearing on a lawsuit against Alfa Mutual Insurance Co. will resemble the oral arguments at a U.S. Supreme Court case.

Lawyers for Alfa and Coffee County residents Harold and Pam Jones will each have 20 minutes each to make their cases.

Any of the nine justices can interrupt at any time with questions.

The justices will not rule on the case Friday. That will come weeks or months later with a written decision.